Louisiana Ranked Worst State in New US News Report

When the dust settled after all of US News number crunching, there was our beloved Louisiana; dead last again.

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World news giant US News has just released the results of their annual "Best States Rankings" and while states like Utah, determined again to be the best state in the country, the Bayou State was again the worst state.

Explaining the methodology of their research, US News reveals:

The 2025 Best States rankings from U.S. News & World Report assess the performance of the 50 U.S. states using 71 metrics across eight categories. The data behind the rankings aims to show how well states serve their residents in a variety of ways.

In calculating the rankings, each of the eight categories was assigned weights based on the average of three years of data from recent national surveys that asked tens of thousands of people to prioritize various issue areas in their state.

Those eight categories include Crime and Corrections, Economy, Education, Fiscal Stability, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Natural Environment and Opportunity and in all their research, US News determined that Louisiana ranked no higher than 44th in any category and was ranked dead last in a couple of categories.

Louisiana's Terrible Rankings In Each Category Of US News Research

It's sobering to see the numbers right before your eyes, but US news determined that Louisiana is at the bottom, or near, in all eight categories.

• #50 Crime and Corrections
• #50 Economy
• #46 Education
• #46 Fiscal Stability
• #44 Healthcare
• #48 Infrastructure
• #49 Natural Environment
• #46 Opportunity

Utah was determined to be the "Best State" with New Hampshire, Idaho, Minnesota, and Nebraska rounding out the top five.

On the opposite end of the scale, Alaska finished second to last, with Mississippi, New Mexico, and West Virginia rounding out the bottom five.